Voting

AAPD will advocate for policies that allow people with disabilities to fully participate in the political process, including ensuring the accessibility of polling locations and through promoting the availability of accessible voting technology.

REV UP: Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power

The REV UP Campaign aims to increase the political power of the disability community while also engaging candidates and the media on disability issues. REV UP stands for Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!

Full political participation for Americans with disabilities is a top priority. AAPD works with state and national coalitions on effective, non-partisan campaigns to eliminate barriers to voting, promote accessibility of voting technology and polling places; educate voters about issues and candidates; promote turnout of voters with disabilities across the country; engage candidates and the media on disability issues, and protect eligible voters’ right to participate in elections.

Get Involved

The REV UP Campaign coordinates National Disability Voter Registration Week each year to increase the political power of people with disabilities while also engaging candidates and the media to recognize the disability community. REV UP stands for Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!

We are collecting sign-ons from organizations (national, state, and local) to show their support for the REV UP Campaign and National Disability Voter Registration Week. Supporting organizations will have their name and logo listed on the REV UP website to show the vast support behind the Campaign. Sign-on here!

Voter Information and Resources

The list below is a resource to help you register to vote, learn about the issues, and organize the disability vote. The REV UP Campaign aims to increase the political power of the disability community while also engaging candidates and the media on disability issues. REV UP stands for Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!

As a voter with a disability, you have the right to:

Vote privately and independently

Have an accessible polling place with voting machines for voters with disabilities

Wheelchair-accessible voting booths

Entrances and doorways that are at least 32 inches wide

Handrails on all stairs

Voting equipment that is accessible to voters who are blind or who have low vision

Bring your service animal with you into your polling place

Seek assistance from workers at the polling place who have been trained to use the accessible voting machine

Bring someone to help you vote (including a friend, family member, caregiver, assisted living provider, or almost anyone else, but not your employer or union representative).

Register

Rock The Vote – Get registered, get informed, and get involved. Rock The Vote offers voter registration resources, election FAQs, and opportunities to help build the political power of young people in the United States.

TurboVote – An application that makes voting easy. Sign up to keep track of your elections, local and national. You can also get registered, update your voter registration, or request an absentee ballot.

One Vote Now – Partner project of NACDD and DREDF to enhance the voting bloc of people with disabilities. Visit their site for information on voting, registration, and polling place accessibility.

DisBeat – A compilation of news from the disability perspective, including a voting issues page.

NFB Newsline – The National Federation of the Blind has expanded the scope of Newsline, their audio newspaper service, to include coverage of the 2016 election. Call toll-free: 1-866-504-7300 for more information.

Election Assistance Commission – The national clearinghouse of information on election administration, from voting system testing and certification to data on how Americans voted in recent federal elections.Click here to learn more about voting accessibility.

Top 3 best fact checking sites – icitizen shared a blog about the top 3 best fact checking sites to help stay on top of the news and determine the truth.

Vote

Resources and tools for casting a ballot and access to the polls.

Election Protection – Visit www.866ourvote.org or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) if you have any issues or concerns related to Election Day.

Call 888-Ve-Y-Vota (888-839-8682) for Bilingual English and Spanish assistance

Voter Support Service – AAPD is proud to partner with The Arc of the United States on their Voter Support Service for people with disabilities. The site helps voters report and resolve voting barriers in real time.

Voter Protection App for Latino Voters – LatinoJustice PRLDEF has launched a new smartphone voter protection app to help citizens report voting rights violations while voting in the 2016 elections. The app is in both English and Spanish and can be downloaded on iTunes and Google Play.

SMS Tool – The Voting Information Project supports a SMS Tool that provides voters with election information via text message. By texting “VOTE” or “VOTO” to GOVOTE (468-683), voters can find polling places, contact information for local election officials, and registration URLs. The app is available in multiple languages.

Voter ID Requirements – VoteRiders released a wallet-sized Voter ID Info Card (in English and Spanish) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each card provides a breakdown of the voter ID requirements in that specific state. They also host a Voter ID Hotline: 1-844-338-8743.

Know Your Right To Vote – The Arc has compiled a resource on knowing your voting rights as a person with a disability.

The Election Toolkit – The Center for Technology and Civil Life (CTCL) created a website that holds a collection of free (or cheap) tools that are built for you to use to increase civic engagement — turnout, voter registration — and to smooth operations in polling places.

The First Step: A Basic Guide to Civic Engagement – Disability Rights Texas produced this civic engagement guide to help citizens understand how they can get involved in their community.

They Work For Us: A Self-Advocate’s Guide to Getting Through to your Elected Officials – an advocacy toolkit from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network available in plain text and easy read versions.

How to Set up a Meeting with Your Member of Congress – Families USA provides a step-by-step guide that outlines how to have a successful meeting with Members of Congress.

United Way – The United Way offers a Voter Engagement Toolkit with information on how to remain nonpartisan while engaging voters.

2016 Voter Experience Survey – Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) compiled a final report based on their survey of 761 voters with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 40 states about their experiences voting.

Calling All Siblings: Share Your Stories! – The Sibling Leadership Network is collecting stories on how individuals have helped their siblings with disabilities vote.

Political Campaigns and Charities – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a guide to help nonprofit organizations determine how to legally participate in voter education and engagement activities. Watch the webinar or read the PDF Course.

Responses to date:

Election Day is November 8, 2016. We have all been working hard to REV UP the disability vote this year and there is no doubt that we have had an impact. Thank you to everyone who joined us in this campaign! We’d like to host another conference call to debrief on this election and our collective efforts. Please join us to review our accomplishments, hear from organizers around the country, and look ahead to 2017 and beyond. Register for the call here.

Join the REV UP Campaign for a National Organizing Call focused on GOTV activities for the disability community. Many states will reach their voter registration deadline in October. As such, it is time for us to begin shifting our focus from voter registration to Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) activities as we lead up to Election Day on November 8th.

Tuesday September 27th marks National Voter Registration Day – a day when volunteers, celebrities, and organizations promote awareness of voter registration opportunities.

The REV UP Campaign is excited to participate in National Voter Registration Day and encourages all of the state and local REV UP Campaigns to sign-up as partners and plan to hold voter registration events on September 27th. We want to build on the success we achieved during National Disability Voter Registration Week and this day presents an opportunity for one more concerted effort to register voters with disabilities before hitting the state voter registration deadlines in mid- to late-October.

On September 8th the REV UP Campaign hosted a National Organizing Call to help organize the disability community’s participation in National Voter Registration Day.

People of Faith Encourage Candidates to Address Disability Concerns

The Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition (IDAC), a program of AAPD, is mobilizing people of faith to sign a letter encouraging candidates to address disability concerns in their campaigns. The letter encourages candidates for public office to address these disparities and set forth a “vision to encourage the civil rights of people with disabilities, and to promote their full inclusion in society.”